📧 Set Up a Custom Email with Your Domain Using Amazon SES, S3, and Lambda

What You'll Need

• A domain name (e.g., abc123.com) configured in Route 53
• Access to AWS Console: SES, S3, Route 53

Step 1: Verify Domain in SES

1. Go to Amazon SES → Verified identities
2. Click Create identity, select Domain, and enter your domain
3. Use Route 53 to auto-add DNS records or manually add TXT/DKIM if using another provider
4. Wait for domain to show as Verified

Step 2: Create S3 Bucket to Store Emails

1. Go to S3 → Create bucket
2. Name it something like abc123-emails
3. Disable public access and enable encryption

Step 3: Set MX Record in Route 53

1. Go to Route 53 → Hosted Zones → abc123.com
2. Create MX record:
   10 inbound-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

Step 4: Create Email Receiving Rule in SES

1. Go to SES → Email Receiving → Rule Sets
2. If no rule set exists, create one and activate it
3. Click Create rule:
• Recipient: me@abc123.com or @abc123.com
• Action: S3 → Choose your bucket

Step 1: Create IAM Role for Lambda

1. Go to IAM → Roles → Create role
2. Select service: Lambda
3. Attach policies:
   AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess, AmazonSESFullAccess, AWSLambdaBasicExecutionRole

Step 2: Create Lambda Function

1. Go to Lambda → Create function
2. Use Python 3.12 and assign the role created above
3. Paste this code:

import boto3
import email
import os

s3 = boto3.client('s3')
ses = boto3.client('ses')

FORWARD_TO = "your@gmail.com"

def lambda_handler(event, context):
    record = event['Records'][0]
    bucket = record['s3']['bucket']['name']
    key = record['s3']['object']['key']
    response = s3.get_object(Bucket=bucket, Key=key)
    raw_email = response['Body'].read()
    ses.send_raw_email(
        Source=FORWARD_TO,
        Destinations=[FORWARD_TO],
        RawMessage={'Data': raw_email}
    )
    return {'status': 'Email forwarded'}

Step 3: Add S3 Trigger

1. In the Lambda function, add S3 trigger for the email bucket
2. Set event type: Object Created
3. Prefix (optional): inbox/

Step 4: Send Emails Using SES SMTP

1. Go to SES → SMTP settings → Create SMTP credentials
2. Use these settings in your mail client:
• SMTP: email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
• Port: 587
• Username/Password: from SES

Step 5: Improve Deliverability

1. Enable DKIM signing under SES → Domains
2. Add SPF record to Route 53:
   "v=spf1 include:amazonses.com -all"